Comparing Orwell's Brave New World 'And 1984'

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orewell’s 1984 were both composed surrounding times of war in the twentieth century. The authors were alarmed by what they saw in society and began to write novels depicting the severe outcomes and possiblities of civilizaton if it continued down its path. Although the two books are very different, they both address many of the same issues and principles.

Brave New World is seen as a book written on a utopian society that robot-like humans live in. The time is 632 After Ford, and the city of a utopian England is stabilized by soma. Soma is seen as a substance taken in low dosages to induce pleasant feelings and stimulates social contact. It makes the people happy, relaxed and good-humored. (Schermer, 2007). A substance like soma can be evaluated as what makes the book, Brave New World, a utopian universe. The author sees soma as psychoactive drug that contains human civilization in what really is a dystopian society.

Brave New World covers a range of themes and issues that have been pertinent to moral society since it was first published in 1932. From genetic engineering to class struggles, Brave New World examines a future where embryos are chemically treated to ensure they fit a certain class, and then babies and children are hypnotized into believing governmental doctrines as pure truth. The use of Soma, a narcotic used as an instant anti-depressant, casts a worrying shadow on the chemical treatment of clinical depression to an extent, and ethical grey areas such as IVF are easily comparable to the key themes of the book. The enforced consumer society in Brave New World is strikingly familiar. Huxley may have written it in as a satire of the society

In Brave New World Aldous Huxley, creates a dystopian society which is scientifically advance in order to make life orderly, easy, and free of trouble. This society is controlled by a World State who is not question. In this world life is manufactured and everyone is created with a purpose, never having the choice of free will. Huxley use of irony and tone bewilders readers by creating a world with puritanical social norms, which lacks love, privacy and were a false sense of happiness is instituted, making life meaningless and controlled.

Although Huxley starts the story by introducing Bernard and his disapproval with the way society works, he suggests that individuals can be prevented from pursuing personal desires, if they are kept content with giving them small pleasures over short periods of time. The way which Bernard’s society keeps its people happy is by encouraging them to take soma regularly and to have sexual relationships with multiple partners. Drugs and sex, only keeps people happy for a short period of time and that is while it is happening. As soon as it is over they return to the misery they were in before, but the society encourages more, thus individuals who comply with the society are always kept content. Bernard is similarly kept satisfied by soma, even though he doesn’t take it too often; it’s his way of escaping reality when he is deeply unhappy with how his life is going. Intimacy with the other sex doesn’t keep him content because he questions this belief, but instead going on a date with Lenina or visiting the reservation does. The protagonist appreciates spending quality time, for instance when he suggest that for his date with Lenina, they “land on top of the Skiddaw and walk for a couple of hours in the heather”(77) or when he wishes to “look at the sea in peace”(78). In

This was Huxley’s worst fear for the future, a world where conformity causes all individuality to die off and become extinct. This is his reason for writing the book, Brave New World, to inform and warn people of the horrors that could be just around the corner if they continued on the path they were on. He wrote it as a satire regarding the increased consumerism of the roaring 1920’s in America, therefore “in the Brave New World, happiness means having everything under control” (Weber, 1), especially economic and government control. “In his satirical and sinister novel, warfare and poverty have been eliminated, but also family, culture, art, literature, science, religion, and philosophy. In their place, Soma, a powerful drug provided by the

This statement can be related to our society today. Soma, a drug that is excessively used in the novel, helps distract the people from the truth. In the novel, it states that anyone can "Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology" (49). Soma lets people have pleasure without any consequence. This is very enticing to the world state citizens, and soma becomes more important than the truth about their society. As a matter of fact, the people are encouraged to stop caring. At one point in the novel, it says, “A gramme is better than a damn” (54). This quote means that a gramme of soma is better than caring about anything. This lets the truth about the government be masked by an irrelevant drug. Huxley successfully predicted drugs to be a powerful part of society. In an article by The Guardian, the author writes, “He foresaw the ubiquitous prevalence of drugs, both legal and illegal” (Dacre). In our society, drugs play a big part in suppressing citizens from revolting. For example, marijuana is being legalized more around America to satisfy the people and keep them from focusing on more important issues. It is true that the truth is being masked by irrelevant objects like

Brave New World, a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley, expresses concerns on the usage of science and the impending doom of the world. Huxley repetitively stresses the significance of science and technology in Brave New World using myriad references throughout the novel. Huxley foreshadows that with scientific and technologic achievements, comes with a heavy governmental interference, which is evident in today’s society. Through scientific and technological advances, the government in Brave New World, is able to regulate culture using soma which keeps the inhabitants in a false sense of happiness. Soma, a drug used for instant gratification relieves emotional trauma and becomes a symbol for how powerful the influence of science and technology is on society.

On the books, Brave New World and 1984, they deal with speech in a way where you cannot say how you really feel. If you were to say how you felt you were considered frowned upon in their society. There were no freedoms in either society. Everyone was considered the same. If everyone was the same in our society, it would be completely different. We need different opinions to make the world go around. Really, if everyone was the same, I honestly don't think our society would last very long. Each society had a lot of similarities with the way each of them were running. They believed it was all one way and if you thought there was another, you were looked at as the outcast who would later be punished depending on what you did/were going to do.

Comfort and stability are natural things to desire in times of uncertainty. In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, this concept is taken too far. In a distant future, a world ravaged by war and economic failure recreates itself into a society where people are made on assembly lines, familial and monogamous relationships are non-existent, the drug soma is used to avoid any conflict or emotion, and everyone is conditioned from birth to behave in a way that promotes the status quo. The government tries to control all variables to advance its agenda of stability, but of course this is not completely possible. Humans have a tendency to think that they are more powerful than they are, and the leaders of the World State are no different.

In the article, the contemporary social critic Neil Postman compares the novels 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley on which author was the most correct about the future when writing. For the sake of this argument, we will be using the year 2018 for the social standard when describing the future because both of these books were written prior to the year 1960. In the article, Postman talks about how the future described by Huxley is more accurate than the one described by Orwell. Postman would be correct because of the way the present society idolizes unimportant and more materialistic things rather than proper news or gaining knowledge at a library.

Such a comment underscores Huxley’s differing impression [in regards to politics] to that of the majority, suggesting a political motivation to his novel and foreshadowing the plethora of conflicting views that exist today. In like manner and in the words of author, lecturer and critic Leon R. Kass, Brave New World predicts “all contemporary societies” as “travelling briskly in the same utopian direction”. A statement as bold and almost agathokakological (‘bitter-sweet’) as such, better represented by the idiom ‘double-edged sword’ strikingly highlights that there has been no notable action against increasing state supremacy in 52 years (1949-2001). Like Winston are we destined for this utopian disaster? Or as ill-fated as John the Savage? Both novels comparatively demonstrate characters enforcing compliance, experiencing love and engaging in sex – all as acts of rebellion – whilst maintaining their didactic-ness, warning future societies against the ineffable power of government control and artificial

Aldous Huxley’s compelling futuristic novel, Brave New World, takes place in an elaborately constructed society whose citizens have their intellect highly conditioned from birth to be entirely “jolly” [as stated in the text] throughout life merely through superficial fulfillment that the government is able to provide. However, the perpetually gleeful yet blind citizens are stripped of their dignity, compassion, values and morals-ultimately losing their human emotions without the realization that they’ve lost such an important aspect in life. When problems arise, the drug soma is a quick ‘solution’ to the distress it brings. An outcast to the new society, Bernard Marx struggles through his life, seeking to understand why his peer’s, such

The Brave New World portrays the perfect society, where citizens of “Utopia” live a life without depression, and any socioeconomic problems. In the New World, every portion of life is controlled. Only when a person is able to dig deeper inside of himself will he find that this world is nothing close to perfect. Drugs, sex, and mind games control this world and solve any problems that may arise, such as overpopulation, and caste tension. The usage of such tactics causes a loss of individuality.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley depicts a future that seems happy and stable on the surface, but when you dig deeper you realize that it is not so bright at all. People almost autonomously fall in line to do what they have been taught to do through constant conditioning and hypnopædia. Neil Postman’s argument that Huxley’s book is becoming more relevant than George Orwell’s 1984 is partly true. Huxley’s vision of the future is not only partly true, but it is only the beginning of what is to come.